Social media

As anyone who's spent some time on the conference circuit will tell, social media is (somehow) still being treated as an exciting new trend, even though its obvious to anyone with hands-on experience social media is something that needs to be integrated into your digital marketing efforts rather than being allowed to exist within its own silo.
In fact, it seems pretty likely that the term "social media marketing" will disappear in the not-too-distant future and people will once again refer ...

Over the past 24 or so hours, South Africans have been avidly following the progress of a devastating wildfire raging across Cape Town's Southern Peninsula. The massive blaze, which started in the early hours of Sunday morning, was fanned by strong winds, causing it to spread rapidly.
While initially the fire was contained to a section of Table Mountain National Park, it spread rapidly throughout the day and night eventually becoming a threat to a number of suburbs including Noordhoek, Muizenburg, ...

A growing number of consumers are turning to social media as their first point of contact when they have a question or complaint for a brand with which they do business. Yet too few companies have yet started to think about social media as a customer service tool – and the result is that they are missing out on some golden opportunities to build better relationships with their customers.
The implication is that social media should no longer be considered to ...

I've never been a big fan of Valentine's Day. Not because it celebrates love and all that. I just hate the idea of commercialising things for the sake of squeezing money out of people, plastering your every living experience with roses, red hearts, chocolates and cute teddy bears. Luckily we can customise our experiences online.
For those of you who would like to maintain sanity throughout the next couple of days, we've made a list of tools you can use online ...

South Africa's parliament erupted into refrains of "Bring back the signal" in the lead up to President Jacob Zuma's State of the Nation Address today.
The chant rose up among opposition MPs as it emerged that a cellphone jamming device was being used in the parliamentary district.
This was the first time such technology had been used in the more than 20 years since South Africa held its first fully democratic elections.
The rallying cry was also picked up on social media, particularly ...

By now you've probably seen the meme of the week #MugabeFalls. If you haven't: where have you been? Read the next paragraph to catch up; if you know what we're on about, skip it.
Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe tripped after addressing supporters in Harare, an incident that on its own wouldn't have drawn much attention. But the 90-year-old was so embarrassed that his security personnel ordered photographers to wipe all images of the fall. An Associated Press photographer disregarded the orders, however, ...

Researchers at the University of Missouri, Columbia have found that Facebook can lead to depression. According to the researchers, the envy we feel towards our friends on the social network may lead to depression.
Margaret Duffy, a professor and chair of strategic communication at the MU School of Journalism, wrote that “We found that if Facebook users experience envy of the activities and lifestyles of their friends on Facebook, they are much more likely to report feelings of depression.”
Based on ...

Data from Facebook and Twitter has revealed record amounts of activity across both social networks during the Super Bowl.
While the event is about as American as you can hope to get, but global interest in the event is growing rapidly. Small wonder then that Super Bowl 49, which the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots contested, was the biggest and most talked about Super Bowl in Facebook history.
Facebook has revealed that more than 65-million people (15-million more than last ...

Social media is a great medium to generate sales leads. People that are searching online for a specific service or product will often ask their social circles for advice. This happens in real life, but most definitely online as well. There are thousands of social networking channels available online and we are not only looking for recommendations from our peers, but what others are generally talking about the product or service we are interested in. I love reading and before ...

Stringent regulations might prevent South African brands from having a proper go at each other in the advertising space, but that doesn't mean they can't have a little fun every now and then. Just take Hisense's reaction to a recent gaffe by Samsung for instance.
This week, an image emerged of an advert the Korean publication had placed in a South African magazine, proclaiming that it was a "proud sponsor of the Proteas" alongside a picture featuring three South African ...